David Ruppert

Every year out in Bryans Mill, all of the land owners and permanent residences get together for a blowout weekend. It’s the one time where almost everyone shows up. For some reason, beyond my comprehension, it happens during opening weekend of squirrel season.

Why I’m not so clear on its timing is due to the fact that almost nobody hunts squirrel. It’s simply an excuse to head to the woods, leave the women and children at home, and blow things up.

This year was fairly quiet for the rest of the land owners out there. We did run in to a few of them, which in turn led to a 20 mile hike up and down dirt road by a literal convoy of UTV’s until 3 in the morning. But other than that . . it was a surprisingly civilized squirrel camp.

Chris and I brought out several friends this year to join in the general anti-hygienic, overly inebriated death and destruction.

I didn’t shoot too many photos, but did manage to catch a few while we played ‘war’ off of the back porch.

Many of us don’t get an opportunity to pull out the guns on a regular basis, so when the opportunity’s presented, most of our friends go significantly overboard. Which, honestly, is one of the reasons we get along so well.

Brian’s shooting his Caltech pistol.

From the look on Brandon’s face, Chris just said something highly offensive.

Scott sits down with Chris’s .35 Remington. Ear protection is a necessity with this one.

He looks happy with his shot, though he’s probably just glad it’s over with. Trust me, he’s fighting back tears.

Josh sits down with his 22-250.

While I was trolling up and down the deck, this little guy got right in my way and wouldn’t move. Soo, I took a picture. If you can see his lips, he’s saying ‘cheeeeeessee’.

A little later in the day we headed down to a different part of the property to shoot a little skeet. Don’t worry, they’re biodegradable skeet. We’re totally green.

And at the end of the day, this is where you can always find Brandon. Sitting in his chair, filling up his damn BB gun. He’s totally addicted. It’s a little sad.

I have a very clear memory of very few things these days.  It’s incredibly frustrating.  If you asked me what I had for lunch yesterday I would spend the next 20 minutes fixating on it until I finally threw up my arms, blurted out a slew of offensive epithets and slumped my head down in disgust.

Crap, now I can’t focus.

Maybe I went home.  Noo, that doesn’t sound right, I was busy yesterday.

Boston Market . . BAM.  I remembered.  Take that abnormally early memory loss.

With that in mind [at least for a few more seconds], I do have a very clear memory of a few of what I like to call ‘true life highlights’.

This particular one centered around riding a friend of the family’s three wheeler some . . sheesh . . 25 years ago?   Some day this memory might be superseded by the birth of a son or my first lottery win, but that’s unlikely.

The fam was in snow-coated Iowa visiting my dad’s childhood friend while my brother and I were outside destroying his sons three wheeler and snowmobile.  What I remember specifically was removing my gloves to get something out of my pocket, tossing them on the ground and my menace of a brother burying them in the snow by driving over them on the three wheeler.

Pfshh.  Ass.

I remember not caring much because, after all, I was actually splitting time between hauling ass on a treacherously unsafe three wheeler . . and hauling more ass on a snowmobile that weighed 10 times what I did . . and unfortunately was worth 10 times what my life was worth.

It . . . . was . . . . AWEsome.

I picked up the gloves, undoubtedly shot my assface brother the infamous double finger and ran inside to dry them out in the microwave.

For future reference, microwaves are not meant to dry things out . . they only warm things up.  The gloves were better than before, but only for about 3 minutes.  But whatever . . I was back on that three wheeler hanging on for dear life.  I couldn’t have cared less.

Since that day I’ve wanted a three wheeler . . dangerous oversized single front tire, incredibly tip-friendly, illegal to manufacture and all.

So . . after looking through craigslist ads for the better part of my early 30’s, I came across one a couple of weeks ago.  A 1979 ATC 110.  It’s not the 200 Big Red I’d longed for since that day in the early 80’s, but it’s a start.  And . . really I’m just starting my collection, one of these days I’ll have the coveted Big Red.

This one is in surprisingly good shape for a 30 year old death machine.  I had to order a new gas cap, front tube and some handle grips . . but now she’s ready to roll.

But, let it be known that ridiculously large tires are NOT a suitable replacement for a suspension.  Mmmmmyeaaahhh.

She shall live at the cabin.  All will fear her.  And I shall call her the ‘Widowmaker’.

Ok, it’s been a couple of weeks, but I finally wrapped up the bathroom last night. I had a vast majority of the work done a couple of weeks ago, but had to wait until this past Thursday for the plumber to come back out and hook up the drains and set the commode.

Last night I finally went to Bed, Bath, Body Works and Beyond . . or whatever the hell it’s called . . and got some finishing touches: shower curtain, towels, soap doohickey, faincee kleenex box cover thingie.

So to finally relieve your angst of being able see my handy work. Here we go.

The pictures seem dark, but that vanity is a cherry color.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that I’m fully qualified to build top quality custom homes now. Too bad the markets in the crapper [ha!] otherwise I would OWN that industry.

Except for picking out colors. I still don’t like my green.

Whatever.  It’s still a far cry from what I started with.

I still have the palm tree art if anyone would like it. I’ve even got a matching shower curtain . . you could collect the whole set.

I mean for part two . . . part two.

So . . when last I left you I had wrapped up the backer board and I was waiting for the tile master to show up and put up the travertine.

Before they got here on Friday, I painted the ceiling and the walls just to make it a little easier in the end. It’s prreeeetty . . preettyy green.

I think I’m ok with it. I don’t think it will be as powerful once all of the items are back in place. And really at that point it will be too late to do anything about it . . so that’s my way of not doing anything about it.

On Friday, Tony sent over a couple of guys and they started hanging some tile. I dropped in during their lunch to snap a quick photo.

They wrapped things up around 8 Friday night with the promise of dropping back by on Sunday to grout things in.

Before they got back, I was able to attach the new light fixture, which was a nice change of pace from my texture-covered lamp-without-a-shade. It’s all about having the right tool for the right job.

The plumbing fixtures are going to be satin nickel, and the light fixture’s no different.

Sunday they came back and grouted the travertine in. Tonight they came back and sealed everything . . which brightened up the color quite a bit.

I’m thrilled with the final product. If anyone needs a tile guy . . I’ve got a phone number for you.

He’s a ‘rock’ star. Get it. Cause it’s travertine.

I know what you’re thinking. Wow.

Whatever.

It looks very long and skinny in the pics, but not as bad in person.

Next will be cutting and nailing up the base that’s already painted in the garage. Then the vanity, toilet, cabinet and details.

Might have it wrapped up by end of the week? Might not. Who knows.

I’m pure genius. Honestly, it’s shocking I don’t have more neck issues considering the basketball-sized noggin I’m dragging around.

A couple of Tuesdays ago I got home from work and dropped down on the couch to chow down on a nice plate of leftovers. Having completed that in a matter of seconds, I found myself staring at the clock . . then outside . . then back at the clock. I did this probably 5 or 6 times before I just had to get up.

I realized I had nothing to do that night . . and quickly started getting the shakes. It’s such an odd feeling. I had literally . . . nothing . . . to do that night.

I started gasping for air. The walls were closing in. I was in full panic mode.

After all, while work has been somewhat consistent, I wasn’t really in the middle of any large projects . . so work wasn’t keeping me late.

And . . at least as far as I knew on that Tuesday . . we weren’t going to the property that coming weekend [we . . of course, ended up going for a quick one-night smash and grab job]. So, as far as I was concerned I didn’t have anything to get ready for there.

Laundry was done. Lawn was mowed. No wedding planning duties to tend to. I don’t have any kids to feed or bathe or do homework for.

[This is the part in the story where my sister probably blows a blood vessel in her eyes she’s rolling them so hard at my . . . . “problem”]

So . . in all of my glorious stupidity, I decided to do some remodeling on my house. Sure . . I know I’ve been building a cabin . . . every . . . damn . . . weekend . . . . for the past year. And sure there’s been some other things have been taking up some time . . helping friends, wedding preparation, work, other projects around the house, whatever.

But . . but Tuesday night I had nothing. And while I used to thrive on those nights . . simply spending the entire night camped out on the couch watching something I’d already seen 30 or 40 times, I just can’t do it anymore. I wish I could . . but I just can’t.

So with the threat of a poor economy, the weight of a wedding and cabin to pay for . . and very little time to get any of that done, I decided I was going to roll up my sleeves and make one final . . hopefully catastrophic blow to the genitals. Something that would truly teach me a lesson.

I started with the idea of a simple update to the hall bathroom. My house is a teeny-tiny single story house built in the early 80’s. Some of it has been updated since I moved in, but quite a bit is still in ‘original’ condition.

Yeah, that’s palm tree art.

It’s hard to tell, but the shower tile is kinda off white with gold speckles.  I’m told it appeals to bass fishermen.

I’m thinking, you know . . maybe I could throw up a new mirror, change the light fixture, take the towel that’s been hanging on that poorly painted towel rack for the last 4 years down and . . I don’t know . . . wash it?  Throw a coat of paint on this pig and call it done.

Instead, I called a tile guy.  Because . . well . . of the things that date my current bathroom, the shower tile is one of the biggies.  The first tile guy stopped by the house, and HIS brilliant idea was to start by replacing my tub.

Like I mentioned, the house is 30 years old and both of my tubs are steel . . and most likely complete rust buckets on the bottom side.

So, I was 4 minutes in to my first contractor, and my tile budget had . . . that’s right . . . doubled. 

Welp, this is going well so far.

I’ve learned a lot working out at the cabin and I decided that I’d take a swing at as much stuff as I could . . and pay to have the rest done, namely tile and plumbing.  So while I have a tile guy and a plumber slotted for the work, I’m doing the demo and prep work to save a few benjamins.

First things first . . . eeeevvverything needs to come out.

Yeah, there was carpet in there.  Brilliant idea.  You might be shocked to find out that around the tub there’s a slight hint of a fragrance I like to call Autumn Mildew.

Once everything else is out of the way, I needed to bring the tile down, so I could get to that pesky tub.

Ok, things are fairly ok at this point.  I’m really only two days into this project and I’ve cleaned everything out and picked up some cheap Travertine at Floor & Decor.

The following week I had Todd from The Plumbing Group out to replace the tub and drop the new shower valve in.  He’s the same brilliant chap that did all of the work on the cabin, so he’s not only very qualified and reasonably priced, but he’s got this kind of Superhero mystique.

I’m actually kidding, I have no idea what his fictional crime fighting background might be.

The old tub comes out and the new one gets dropped in.

Now that he’s gone, we’ve replaced some of the original sheetrock with new DensArmor and placed DensGuard backer board on top of that.  So that’s ready for the travertine.

But, before Tony the Tiler comes out to work his magic, I need to do some additional drywall work, like cleaning up some holes and removing the medicine cabinet.

I also wanted to prime/paint the ceiling [cause it makes such an unbelievable mess] and texture the walls [ditto].

That’s where I’m at right now.  Thursday night will be set aside for painting the ceiling. Tony will be here Friday to set the floor and shower tile and back on Monday to grout everything in. 

Then I get to paint again . . . whoopideedoooooo.

Several times over the years I’ve decided I need to move on from Homesite. Homesite had become an afterthought long before it was acquired by Acromedia . . or Macrodobe . . or whatever it is these days.

Every time I try to find something new, I’ll download one . . play around with the trial version and find something that’s a total deal-breaker for me. I tried Notepad++, but didn’t download the Explorer plug-in initially . . and subsequently spent an HOUR looking the safety blanket of my file browser docked to the left side of the window.

I also tried e Text Editor, meehh . . . not that impressed. It didn’t auto-complete tags. Again, deal-breaker for me. It just wasn’t as user-friendly as I’d hoped. I’d assumed that it was just a matter of me using Homesite exclusively over the past 10 years . . and really not wanting to learn anything new.

Another faaaaairly significant downside to e Text Editor was the fact that it crashed 4 times in the first 8 hours of use. I’ve got enough crap on my machine that crashes . . I don’t need to add the most commonly used application to that list.

One feature that was a must was being able to reassign keyboard shortcuts. Lets face it, that goes a long way in helping me with the transition. Five years ago I set up Ctrl+P as the shortcut for <p> [by the way, who's printing out code anyway?]. I need that back. If every time I hit Ctrl+P it brings up the print dialog box . . I’m frustrated.

Next, and seemingly obvious, I need a file explorer docked somewhere on my window. What I ended up finding . . and loving . . was HTMLPad 2008. HTMLPad 2008 not only has a built in file explorer . . but just about everything else . . and somehow it’s all easy to find.

HTMLPad 2008 must have been influenced by Homesite, because right off the bat, I don’t feel lost. In fact, it feels like Homesite, but with more helpful tools.

For example, there’s an Inspector [much like Visual Studio]. Not completely sold that I’ll use that much . . but I’m interested in its capabilities.

Next, much like Homesite’s Snippets, HTMLPadd 2008 has a Library. Short code snippets with the ability to edit or delete existing ones and create new ones.

Next, a multiple item clipboard. I remember the introduction of this feature in Office, but this one seems more usable. Can’t quite explain that one yet, but that’s the case.

One thing that Homesite never had . . and I ALWAYS wanted was block selection. In fact in certain scenarios I’d be willing to open up the resource hog known as Visual Studio just to be able to block select something.

Built in HTML Validator . . SVN integration . . built in preview in IE or Firefox. I could really go on. I’m really embarrassed that I’m sooo happy to find a capable, feature-rich, inexpensive text editor.

I’m able to change to an updated text editor without spending an inordinate amount of time relearning the way I’ve been writing code for the better part of the past decade.

I’ve only had this gem for a couple of days, so I’m apprehensive that the shine might wear off, but as of right now, I’m ecstatic to pay $35 for a top notch html editor.

At least visit the site. There’s plenty of information about features and what’s new, including more than enough screenshots to get the idea.